Paul Zammit: Toronto Planter Powerhouse!

“Contain your enthusiasm!” That was a sure-fire title much-loved and overused by the page editors at the big Toronto newspaper I worked for in the 1990s. Whether I was writing about pots of culinary herbs or billowing hanging baskets (yes, we hung wire baskets back in the day, sometimes laboriously lined with damp sphagnum moss), readers were encouraged to pot up all their joy and fervour along with their plants. But listening to Paul Zammit expound on the virtues and vices of container design in front of a group of 65 rapt garden bloggers at the Toronto Botanical Garden this month, I realized that this human bundle of energy and creativity really does add a big dash of enthusiasm to each container he designs.  (Not to mention quite a few decades worth of intimate knowledge of how plants behave in confinement!)

01-Paul Zammit-Toronto Botanical Garden

But unlike his high-octane performance in front of the bloggers (a horticultural hybrid of pace-the-aisles missionary and polished inspirational speaker)….

02-Paul Zammit-Toronto Botanical Garden

…most of the time, no one is around to watch Paul craft his beautiful pots and planters, like this pretty confection from Spring 2011 with its pussy willows, hellebores, euphorbia and ivy…

03-Spring 2011-Paul Zammit

…or this one, from Spring 2012, using winter heath (Erica carnea) with hellebores, daffodils & little wisps of Chamaecyparis….

04-Spring 2012-Paul Zammit

…or this cheerful Spring 2015 edition with its purple heuchera, orange violas, euphorbia and pink tulips.

05-Spring-2015-Paul Zammit

No, Paul’s creations simply appear one day in the garden:  a perfect vignette in a big old urn like this, with variegated yucca, echeveria, blue senecio and sedum (2013)…..

06-Summer 2013-Paul Zammit

….or sleekly-modern, dramatic, black planters (my all-time champions from 2011) filled with ‘Red Star’ cordyline (a Paul favourite), bronze sweet potato vine, fancy-leaf ‘Indian Dunes’ pelargoniums and tropical copperleaf (Acalypha wilkesiana) on top….

07-September 2011-Paul Zammit

…or a row of iron window boxes (2012) stuffed with herbs (sage and parsley), orange calibrachoa, conical golden cypress shrubs, Japanese hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’) and bronze carex, which then do their beautiful thing for months on end.

08-September 2012-Paul Zammit

My camera and I have been watching Paul’s containers for the better part of 10 years, and I’ve collected quite a few favourites.  As noted above, he loves cordylines!  And mixing orange with green, like these textural designs from 2009….

09-2009 Urns-Paul Zammit

…but will occasionally opt for romantic, old-fashioned colours like pink and purple (2012) – and always with a plant list label.

10-June 2012-Paul Zammit

Who else could work such magic with wine, chartreuse and orange: crotons, lantana, ‘Crimson Curls’ heuchera, yellow bidens, ‘Burgundy’ oxalis and orange Sparks Will Fly Begonia boliviensis,  (2014)

11-June 2014-Paul Zammit

He’s fond of statuesque, tropical plants for summer-long colour, but ,,,,,

12-August 2011-Paul Zammit

…it takes a practised eye to know how fabulous peach abutilon and brown-and-peach copperleaf (Acalphya wilkesiana) will look together…

13-August-2011-Paul Zammit

He loves using the dramatic foliage of canna lilies, as in the two towering designs below from 2013 and 2009.  Foliage always trumps flowers for Paul, as with the euphorbia and arborvitae, left, and the cut-leaf golden elder, right.  If you look closely, you might see a few of Paul’s favourite fillers, parsley and asparagus fern.
There are a variety of reasons that leads to depression and lack viagra canada deliver of satisfaction of with their partners. Regular intake of uk viagra herbal fertility pills improves the functioning of glands and maintains normal hormonal balance so as to suppress the ejaculatory reflex and allow the man to last longer. It is available in 100 mg tablet or oral jelly at first and take it once daily half an hour before sexual intercourse. prescription for cialis A man with good-looking body may have higher level of anti-aging growth hormone, oxygen and testosterone, which cialis lowest prices are special tools to fight aging in both men and women.
14-Fall 2009 & 2013-Paul Zammit

Not everyone would consider using false spirea (Sorbaria sorbiifolia ‘Sem’) to anchor a design, this time with ‘Firecracker’ fuchsias and orange bromeliads and ivy.

15-Spring 2015-Paul Zammit

Did I mention that Paul loves succulents? And he knows just which species to use together to create texture and fullness, from variegated Furcraea foetida to rosy-edged paddle plant (Kalanchoe thyrsiflora), in these designs from 2012.

16-June 2012-Paul Zammit

I loved these shallow bowls filled with shimmery silvery-gray succulents (2012).

17-June 2012-Paul Zammit

Visitors to the Toronto Botanical Garden’s front entance are always treated to a multi-container array.The one below, from 2014, featured silvery salvias, pink dipladenias, red celosia, trailing chenille plant (Acalypha pendula), ferns and swishing papyrus – perfect with the water wall as backdrop.

18-Sept 2014-Paul Zammit

He understands how important height is in a prominent container display, using lime-green arborvitae to anchor these pots (2014) and also serve as a deterrent to any young Spiral Garden climbers wishing to take a shortcut back down the slope.

19-June 2014-Paul Zammit

Somehow, his ornamental kale manages to look more sensuously dramatic than anything I plant for autumn, like these from 2009 and 2011.

20-Autumn 2009 & 2011-Paul Zammit

Each December, Paul dresses up the TBG for the holiday season using abundant berried branches and colourful conifers, like the pots below from 2011.

21-December 2011-Paul Zammit

I especially loved this planter standing sentry in front of the tawny winter grasses in Piet Oudolf-designed entry border.

22-December 2011-Paul Zammit

But apart from creating his container designs, being the spokesperson for the TBG on radio gardening shows and the lecture circuit and overseeing the TBG’s annual plant sale……

TBG-Plant-Sale

Paul is also on hand for events like the annual honey harvest from the garden’s beehives. Here is scraping the frames clean with TBG staffer (and beekeeper) Liz Hood.

23-Paul Zammit & Liz Hood-HoneyFrames

And when he has the chance, he’ll take time to do one-on-one education with the garden’s younger visitors, like this little girl learning about horsetails (Equisetum hyemale).

24-Paul Zammit & student-June 2012

Finally, a little personal note. When my daughter was married at the TBG in 2012 – a busy day with loads of traffic and hundreds of people in and out of the building — one of the bridesmaid’s bouquets somehow went missing in the chaos. Understandably a little frantic with less than an hour before the ceremony, I told Paul about our problem. He had a quick look at the other bouquets, said “Give me half an hour”, and off he went into the gardens. Little did I know when he presented the bouquet (“I’ve done some hand-tying in my time”, he said with a chuckle), that he’d also raced in his car to a nearby florist and picked up appropriate fillers to go with the (slightly redder) dahlia he’d plucked from the test garden.  The bride was none the wiser as the girls posed for photos, the day was saved and Paul shrugged off my effusive thanks in his typically modest way.

25-Wedding-Toronto Botanical Garden

So from me, and all the people who enjoy your lovely designs throughout the year, thanks, Paull Zammit! And never stop containing your enthusiasm!

2 thoughts on “Paul Zammit: Toronto Planter Powerhouse!

  1. What a great assembly of Paul’s creations. TBG will miss him and Niagara College gets a top-notch horticulturalist, teacher, and all-round spokesperson for the wonders of plants of the world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *